Been a while since I posted what I've been buying... but I guess I've just gotten lazy in that regard.
Probably nothing too interesting for anyone here, as it's mostly Pentium 4 and AMD socket A hardware. Lot's of freebie cheapo ATX cases too, some scuffed and damaged to be considered scrap by most... but I don't mind. Oh, and lots of cheapo gutless PSU's for about $0.50 each (i.e. scrap value.)

Veeb0rg wrote on 2025-02-03, 18:29:

I bought a scrap lot off ebay cause I saw something in the photo listings, an AGP Voodoo 5. Sadly it was packed loose with the other parts and now needs some repairs. Anyone know of a source for the 4.7 coils? It will need some work but hopefully can be saved if not by myself then someone else.

These are "PI" (rod core) inductors, so as long as they are not missing any chunks in the middle where the windings are, you can just glue them together (with thin type of glue so as not to increase the gaps between the core pieces) and they should be fine.
Though given the rarity and price of these cards... yeah I can understand about trying to be more cautious and finding proper replacements.
I recall some early Foxconn-built Pentium 4 motherboard used PI inductors like this for the chipset VRM. So these might be compatible.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-02-03, 14:30:

Just received this PC for £50 + postage: […]
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Just received this PC for £50 + postage:

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Things that stood out to me:

1. Motherboard supports PCI, AGP, PCIe.
2. Love that blue CPU cooler
3. Floppy drive with built in SD/CF card reader
4. 128 Bit Geforce 5500 should be good for Win9x

I am planning to use it as a test bench for testing any new hardware that I aquire to make sure that it works. My understanding is that this chipset will support AGP cards of 1.5v or 0.8v, and it should work with most PCIe GPUs up to GTX 580. I think it won't work with dual GPU cards like the GTX 295.

Nice!
That case certainly looks high class on the front for being a cheapie. NGL, the chrome accents are pretty cool. And I like how the various beige components all match in color too. The blue CPU cooler is pretty indeed... almost begging for a windowed case. 😉

As for the 128-bit GeForce FX5500 - that appears like one of the newer China-made builds. If it is, check its electrolytic capacitors. If any have "FZ" printed on their top, you should replace them, as those are know for going out "firecracker-style". See my post towards the end of this thread for more info:
Brand NEW nVidia Geforce FX5500 256MB

Another something I noted: your PSU is a "L&C Technology" one - basically a "bottom-of-the-barrel" Deer/Solytech unit. These are known for being built very poorly, often skipping lots of filtering components inside. So you may want to replace that PSU with something better.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-02-03, 16:33:

Pentium 4 3.0Ghz. I may put a P4 Cedar Mill 3.4Ghz in it. Since I have a few of those CPUs. The motherboard supports dual core P4s, but not Core 2 Duos.

Well, if you do go with a Pentium D CPU, absolutely 1200% replace the PSU then. I know these L&C PSUs all too well, and I can tell you they won't hold up with a Pentium D CPU. Just ask PCBytes.
On that note, you may also want to install the dual 80 mm fans on the back of the case, regardless if you upgrade the CPU or not. P4's produce considerable heat. With just the 80 mm fan from the PSU as exhaust, things ought to get quite "toasty" in 30-40 minutes of use (especially under gaming.)

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-01-26, 03:15:

Picked up a nice "Boxed" BFG 7800GS OC. I mean the box is pretty beat up but hey, still a box. 78$ on the bay, which is pretty g […]
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Picked up a nice "Boxed" BFG 7800GS OC. I mean the box is pretty beat up but hey, still a box. 78$ on the bay, which is pretty good at least for eBay prices.
Its in great condition its'self though, almost like new. replaced the thermal paste on the core and bridge chip and she sings! Idles at 33*C

Its a G71 Core, which is pretty cool. that should mean the OC room is pretty high. It does have the extra shaders, seemingly cut, though riva tuner shows them existing and off. They don't initiate, when selected.

All in all pretty cool! Very Fast.

Very nice find, indeed!
I wouldn't even think to OC that card, though. G71 cores don't do well when they run even a tiny bit hotter, being from the bumpgate era. It's nice to see the GPU run at 33C idle, but what about full load? If you can, try to keep the core under 60C at all times... or better yet, 55C. That should make it last a lot longer. Not sure it would be possible with the stock cooler, though.

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2025-01-24, 18:03:

At the local second hand shop something showed up! A Creative labs fan, full-size PCB, and nVidia written on it. Without completely knowing what it was I took it home for around 5€. Apparently it's a GeForce 4 4800 (a 4600 with AGP 8x support)!

It was dusty as hell and at this point I have no idea if it works.
According to wikipedia, it0s supposed to have a max TDP of 43W and I'm a bit suspicious about the small heatsink/fan...

Yeah, that cooler is just marginally better than the stock reference one nVidia used on the TI 4400/4600 series. May want to replace it if you have something better. I mean, look how much space there is on the PCB for a much bigger one. Might as well use it, no? 😀

Case and PSU wise - does a KME CX-6458 + Maxpower PL-400 count? 😁

momaka wrote on 2025-02-04, 22:48:

Nice! That case certainly looks high class on the front for being a cheapie. NGL, the chrome accents are pretty cool. And I like […]
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Nice!
That case certainly looks high class on the front for being a cheapie. NGL, the chrome accents are pretty cool. And I like how the various beige components all match in color too. The blue CPU cooler is pretty indeed... almost begging for a windowed case. 😉

As for the 128-bit GeForce FX5500 - that appears like one of the newer China-made builds. If it is, check its electrolytic capacitors. If any have "FZ" printed on their top, you should replace them, as those are know for going out "firecracker-style". See my post towards the end of this thread for more info:
Brand NEW nVidia Geforce FX5500 256MB

Another something I noted: your PSU is a "L&C Technology" one - basically a "bottom-of-the-barrel" Deer/Solytech unit. These are known for being built very poorly, often skipping lots of filtering components inside. So you may want to replace that PSU with something better.

Thanks for the tip in the FX card. I will check the capacitors.

Yes, I dont trust old PSUs of unreputable brand. I was thinking of replacing that PSU. I have some more modern ones.

momaka wrote on 2025-02-04, 22:48:

Well, if you do go with a Pentium D CPU, absolutely 1200% replace the PSU then. I know these L&C PSUs all too well, and I can tell you they won't hold up with a Pentium D CPU. Just ask PCBytes.
On that note, you may also want to install the dual 80 mm fans on the back of the case, regardless if you upgrade the CPU or not. P4's produce considerable heat. With just the 80 mm fan from the PSU as exhaust, things ought to get quite "toasty" in 30-40 minutes of use (especially under gaming.)

Thanks for the tip. I may add some fans, but I don't see this as a machine that will do long gaming sessions. It will be a test platform for newly aquired hardware. Most likely with the side panel off when using it.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-04, 12:36:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-04, 12:13:

More updates:

- received the BX133-RAID. Seems it's one of the rare versions where it has had newer Jackcon caps installed by ABIT ~2004. They seem to be fine even tho I have zero trust in 'em. Will recap sometime later. Came with 933MHz P3.

- scrapper added another goodie to the list of gems I selected - DFI AK70 + Athlon 750MHz combo.

I need to get a scrapper friend like yours.

Another game up from him, GA-5AX rev5.1 for a grand total of 1050RON (for all the stuff I ordered)

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-05, 13:53:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-04, 12:36:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-02-04, 12:13:

More updates:

- received the BX133-RAID. Seems it's one of the rare versions where it has had newer Jackcon caps installed by ABIT ~2004. They seem to be fine even tho I have zero trust in 'em. Will recap sometime later. Came with 933MHz P3.

- scrapper added another goodie to the list of gems I selected - DFI AK70 + Athlon 750MHz combo.

I need to get a scrapper friend like yours.

Another game up from him, GA-5AX rev5.1 for a grand total of 1050RON (for all the stuff I ordered)

Thats a nice board, I have the 5.2 Rev and its a beast, a board truly worth having in the collection.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-05, 14:00:

Thats a nice board, I have the 5.2 Rev and its a beast, a board truly worth having in the collection.

Great board. I am kinda under-utilising mine. I have a Pentium MMX 233Mhz in it. Overclocked to 300Mhz. Only problem with mine is that the floppy controller is dead. So I use an ISA card for adding floppy disk support.

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$!
l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5500 or go higher and put in a GF3 Ti 500.
Need to find me a super fast 266FSB CPU, it currently has a 2400+ which is not bad!
It's going to be my new permanent Win98 SE retro Box,could go WinME, since I don't have a machine with that on it currently. Excited 😁

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-02-05, 15:29:

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$!

I have a black shuttle that looks basically the same. Inside I think was AMD Socket 939 with one PCI slot and one PCIe slot. I wasn't sure what to do with it. WinXP with an ATI X1950 Pro seemed to work ok. But it is on a shelf unused since building a more powerful XP system.

I used to have an Athlon XP 3200+ one and a Celeron one also. But I threw them away when they stopped working. I think the PSUs and/or mobos on these shuttles were prone to failure.

A friend gifted me old Pravetz 8M computer with 2 floppy drives and a printer. Pravetz 82 is Apple ][ Plus clone, Pravetz 8M is enhanced model with 64KB RAM, Synertek 6502/1Mhz CPU, second Z80/4Mhz CPU for CP/M, new case and monitor design. Today I was able to get it running with one of the floppies, but it needs full cleaning, some resolder, monitor adjustment and repair the second of floppy.

Already looks pretty clean! That must be a fun little machine.

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-02-05, 15:29:

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$! l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5 […]
Show full quote

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$!
l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5500 or go higher and put in a GF3 Ti 500.
Need to find me a super fast 266FSB CPU, it currently has a 2400+ which is not bad!
It's going to be my new permanent Win98 SE retro Box,could go WinME, since I don't have a machine with that on it currently. Excited 😁

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Wow, it's awesome to see the box and goodies within. Nice grab! Mine is S939 w/ A64 3700+ and AGP.

There are a lot of connectors on this board, for how small it is. It'd be cool to have the "special device" (hehe)

Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-02-05, 23:05:

Wow, it's awesome to see the box and goodies within. Nice grab! Mine is S939 w/ A64 3700+ and AGP. […]
Show full quote

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-02-05, 15:29:

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$! l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5 […]
Show full quote

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$!
l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5500 or go higher and put in a GF3 Ti 500.
Need to find me a super fast 266FSB CPU, it currently has a 2400+ which is not bad!
It's going to be my new permanent Win98 SE retro Box,could go WinME, since I don't have a machine with that on it currently. Excited 😁

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Wow, it's awesome to see the box and goodies within. Nice grab! Mine is S939 w/ A64 3700+ and AGP.

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There are a lot of connectors on this board, for how small it is. It'd be cool to have the "special device" (hehe)

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Ooooh a 939 shuttle with agp sounds pretty sweet. You could slide an Opteron in there with a 6800GT for a really sweet & powerful compact box!

I really wanted the universal AGp for 2X / 1x cards, Thats why I picked up this particular model. Might have to start looking for a 939 model too!

not bought, but a gift. the motherboard of what i think is one of the MSX Daewoo IQ 1000 versions, a variant of the daewoo DPC-200. they have removed some capacitors and a couple of transistors. the composite video and sound connectors have been sawed off!!!!, and the RF module has also been removed. in theory it worked before that (the previous owner told me). i unsoldered the PROM to dump it before continuing.
i have not found an image of this exact motherboard to use as a guide. i need to see if any part is missing from the sawed part apart from the connectors. also i need to reverse engineer the keyboard connectors, since it has more pins than the standard says (it should be one 8 pin connector and another 11 pin connector, maybe some are not used) , for build a keyboard.
I have parts to replace almost any faulty chip, except for the audio and video chips, and I have DRAMs but on other boards waiting for restoration.

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-02-05, 15:29:

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$! l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5 […]
Show full quote

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$!
l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5500 or go higher and put in a GF3 Ti 500.
Need to find me a super fast 266FSB CPU, it currently has a 2400+ which is not bad!
It's going to be my new permanent Win98 SE retro Box,could go WinME, since I don't have a machine with that on it currently. Excited 😁

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The attachment PXL_20250205_024135996.jpg is no longer available

The attachment PXL_20250205_014627814~2.jpg is no longer available

I don't really like all the proprietary stuff, but these are cool little systems. We had one at a PC repair shop I worked at 20 years ago, and it had a 2.4Ghz P4 in it. I'm pretty sure it was one of their very first models and it really made waves at the time because you just couldn't get a fast compact PC in 2002-2003, let alone one that looked cool. I don't recall ever having any problems with it other than that it ran a tad hot... aaaand... the time we decided to repaste the CPU we torqued the screws on the back incorrectly which lifted the heatsink off the the CPU slightly and caused it to overheat under light usage. We did figure it out of course... but that was scary. 🤣

I also know a guy that has a much later Shuttle XPC with a Core 2 Duo. He got it free from someone a few years ago and wanted to set it up as an XP machine to run some huge old plotter\printer. When I found that it had some kind of power issue (either with the power supply or the motherboard) he decided not to bother since the parts and time involved would have put it way outside his budget of zero dollars ( 😅). He ended up just taking it back and squirreling it away somewhere. He's a nice guy so I was going to do it for basically the cost of parts, but it admittedly could have ended being a huge pain. It would have been cool to get it running again, but since he just needed Windows XP I advised him to just go the much simpler and cheaper route and use an old XP laptop he already used regularly that worked fine (sounds funny, but... that's what happened.. 🤣 ).

If he ever decides to get rid of the Shuttle I'm hoping he'll tell me first, because it would be cool to get it up and running again. Not really sure what it'd be good at since it's a little too new for Window 9x, but I'd cram some kind of unnecessary GPU in there and see what it could do. Maybe put some really modern low-wattage GPU in it, along with a Core 2 Quad or pad-modded Xeon quad core and see how it handled modern tasks. 😁

A German guy gave me this little gem - another Pentium60/66 from my favorite era.
Never had a "Packard Bell" back then. Interestingly the BIOS identifies itself as branded by VOBIS.
I'll try adding a SCSI controller which would finalize this build.

amadeus777999 wrote on 2025-02-06, 13:47:

A German guy gave me this little gem - another Pentium60/66 from my favorite era.
Never had a "Packard Bell" back then. Interestingly the BIOS identifies itself as branded by VOBIS.
I'll try adding a SCSI controller which would finalize this build.

That is a nice compact machine in good condition. I'd love to have something similar 😀

vetz wrote on 2025-02-06, 14:16:

amadeus777999 wrote on 2025-02-06, 13:47:

A German guy gave me this little gem - another Pentium60/66 from my favorite era.
Never had a "Packard Bell" back then. Interestingly the BIOS identifies itself as branded by VOBIS.
I'll try adding a SCSI controller which would finalize this build.

That is a nice compact machine in good condition. I'd love to have something similar 😀

It was pure luck - most of the time people want hundreds of Euros for such a kit... dire times for people who like "older" things.
There are people who want 400 Euros and more for a P60/66 board.
It's similar with hifi-amps from the 70ies but the prices are way higher as in 10+ grand for a Pioneer SX1980(which, granted, is an extreme example).

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-02-05, 15:29:

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$! l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5 […]
Show full quote

Picked up this very nice Shuttle Athlon build with a box for 75$!
l love it, gonna tweak it a bit and maybe drop in a Voodoo 5500 or go higher and put in a GF3 Ti 500.
Need to find me a super fast 266FSB CPU, it currently has a 2400+ which is not bad!
It's going to be my new permanent Win98 SE retro Box,could go WinME, since I don't have a machine with that on it currently. Excited 😁

The attachment PXL_20250205_024114830~2.jpg is no longer available

The attachment PXL_20250205_024135996.jpg is no longer available

The attachment PXL_20250205_014627814~2.jpg is no longer available

Oh nice.
I think i had the same one.
Came with an Athlon XP 3200+
The compact motherboard was too limiting for my needs back then and i sold the system (except the CPU)... but i have regrets since then.

amadeus777999 wrote on 2025-02-06, 13:47:

A German guy gave me this little gem - another Pentium60/66 from my favorite era.
Never had a "Packard Bell" back then. Interestingly the BIOS identifies itself as branded by VOBIS.

That logo still looks pretty Packard Bell though...

I'll try adding a SCSI controller which would finalize this build.

Looks like someone has already significantly upgraded this machine - an AWE64 gold and that VGA card (what is it?) in the top slot has replaced the onboard Cirrus Logic GD5434

If you wanted to be authentic, don't add SCSI but add a sound card with Panasonic interface and a Matsushita/Panasonic CD-Drom drive (something like an Aztech MMSN824)

dionb wrote on 2025-02-07, 11:20:

That logo still looks pretty Packard Bell though... […]
Show full quote

amadeus777999 wrote on 2025-02-06, 13:47:

A German guy gave me this little gem - another Pentium60/66 from my favorite era.
Never had a "Packard Bell" back then. Interestingly the BIOS identifies itself as branded by VOBIS.

That logo still looks pretty Packard Bell though...

I'll try adding a SCSI controller which would finalize this build.

Looks like someone has already significantly upgraded this machine - an AWE64 gold and that VGA card (what is it?) in the top slot has replaced the onboard Cirrus Logic GD5434

If you wanted to be authentic, don't add SCSI but add a sound card with Panasonic interface and a Matsushita/Panasonic CD-Drom drive (something like an Aztech MMSN824)

It really seems to be a Packard Bell but interestingly the BIOS is signed by the Highscreen line(proprietary of the German "PC vendor" Vobis / windows system info even showing a VOBIS logo). I first thought the board was "counterfeit", as in later installed, but it seems authentic... apparently a naughty "flasher" dropped his eprom-coat.

The VGA card is a Matrox Mystique 220 - superb output.

The SCSI experiment is over - I benchmarked it in DoomII and with SCSI I get a mere "speedup" delta of 3 tics relative to 4500+. Love SCSI but the case is also small and the drive is too hot... in more ways than one.
Thanks for Your tip regarding the sound card, if there is an Aztech wave table option I'll go for it. The AWE64 Gold is the bomb but it feels a bit re-attached in this build(btw - the P60s I had the chance to check out in 1995[all by Vobis] featured "Mozart" soundcards.)